I don’t know how true this is, but supposedly Anthony Mackie is in the running to play the Falcon in “Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which reminded me that Marvel, in my humble opinion, has missed opportunities to introduce or use African-American characters before.
And I get that the Ultimates version of Nick Fury happens to be black. If anyone’s counting, there’s also Blade, before some idiot let David Goyer murder the franchise.
Another example is Heimdal, played by Idris Elba in 2011′s “Thor.” That was an interesting bit of casting, considering the character was generally portrayed as white, which made for a bit of controversy at the time.
In “The Avengers,” considering all the damage that the aliens were doing, that they wouldn’t have brought in War Machine didn’t quite make sense, if only because I was left wondering to myself: If Rhodes wasn’t there, where was he, and what could have possibly have to do that would have taken priority over an alien invasion of Earth?
A missed opportunity, if you ask me.
And yeah, I get that Joss Whedon was juggling quite a few characters, though it would have been at least cool for him to have at least been mentioned.
Another instance involves one of Spider-Man’s friends, Hobie Brown, who happens to be the Prowler. Now, the origin of the character in the comics is mildly offensive (he happens to be a window washer, despite having the engineering skills to design pneumatic devices that have offensive and defensive capability) though if it’s to take place in this economy, I guess whatever job pays–and is legal–is a good one.
“If you value your very soul (or at least your hard-earned cash) see “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” only from the relative safety of cable, Netflix or Redbox (when it’s available).”
I wanted to like Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor’s “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” because I thought that Mark Steven Johnson’s original film wasn’t terrible, but there were so many missed opportunities that I hoped a second film would go about making up for some of them.
I was wrong, because “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” is a mess of a film that not only ignores most that came before it, but makes new mistakes along the way.
This has got to be one of the most interesting casting decisions I have seen in awhile. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Lawrence Fishburne is playing Perry White in Zach Snyder’s “Man of Steel,” his reboot/reimaging of Superman.
He’s definitely got the presence (and gravitas to spare) for the role, though I am concerned what the reaction will be by some that an African-American is playing a character that was portrayed in the comics and prior ‘Superman’ films as Caucasian.
Though Perry White was always a supporting character in the DC Universe (He’s essentially the flip side of J. Jonah Jameson, which means that he’s generally supportive of those around him, as opposed to being a douche), I wonder if some in the fan base will react with as much vitriol as when Idris Elba was cast as Heimdall in Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor”
Does Skin Color Matter To Gods?
Above is an image of Heimdall (played by Idris Elba), from “Thor”. Some in the fan community were incensed when they found that Mr. Elba would be playing Heimdall because the character–as designed by Marvel–is white (image below the break).
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